Image by Klaus Stebani

In this Article

• How horses help us reconnect with our soul identity.
• What horses can teach us about being present and authentic.
• How does equine behavior contrast with human emotional processing?
• How interacting with horses can change our perception of self.

Lessons from Horses to Reclaim Your True Self

by Suzanne E. Court.

I lived for almost two decades so engrossed in my career that I became convinced that I had no soul. I remember the heaviness of feeling dead inside and it was not a pleasant way to be.

The soul is what we were born with and what we will die with. It is the essence of our being, but we can become so caught up in the busy material world that we lose this awareness. Without access to that deeper part of ourselves we experience niggling feelings of being incomplete and dissatisfied with ourselves. But we don’t need to live like that.

If we are looking to reclaim the direct experience of that which underlies all of life; if we are looking to reclaim our soul identity (the unconditioned true self), we couldn’t do better than to ask a mammal such as a horse to show the way.

Becoming Self-Aware Like A Horse

How can we become self-aware like a horse? The big difference physiologically between our two brains gives us a clue to that. Dr. Janet Jones in Horse Brain, Human Brain points out that horses have very little prefrontal cortex, whereas ours takes up 41% of the space in our skulls. This gives us the capacity for useful higher-order thinking, but this very capacity screws us up if we fail to distinguish between useful and useless thought.

In addition, many of our stories undermine aspects of ourselves and make us miserable. We don’t do this on purpose, it comes from our conditioning, but the key to being free from negative thinking is to recognize thought without identifying with it, i.e. without believing that we are our thoughts.

Horses model this for us in the way they accept what is. They show us that it is possible to live a healthier life not driven by old thought patterns.

Unless they have been cruelly treated, horses don’t hold on to fear any longer than is necessary. Our habit of holding on to fear from the past and projecting fearfully into the future confuses horses. Unlike us, they generally don’t project into the future and imagine all the things that could possibly go wrong. An exception is when a horse has been conditioned to anticipate pleasure, pain or danger.

When a horse sees a snake on the trail for instance, he is likely to have a big reaction since he instinctively knows how lethal they can be, but as soon as the snake disappears or is seen to be benign (e.g. the snake turns out to be a stick) most horses will return to a position of homeostasis after a few minutes as their fear dissipates.

Humans, on the other hand, are expert at holding on to fear and building stories around events. If I as a rider hold on to my fear, my horse may assume that I’m anticipating a whole family of snakes further up the trail. We might assume it is the memory of the first snake that keeps him in a nervous state but, more likely, the possibility of further threat is what we have put into our horse’s mind.

The Difference Between Horses and Humans

Most of our communication issues with horses come from our own inconsistent behavior, fears and need to get things done, but once we respect behavioral differences between us and them the interspecies relationship blossoms. Eventually we learn how to think of a horse as a horse, not as a differently shaped human.

Clearly there are differences in the way they perceive the world, in the assumptions they make, and in how they process their emotions, but if we want to know what a horse is really like, we simply need to “ask” the horse.

A young Native American horse trainer, Gawani Pony Boy, reported in his beautifully illustrated book, Horse, Follow Closely, that he got this kind of advice from an elder when he was having difficulty teaching people about horse behavior. He realized that most people weren’t seeing a horse as a horse but as a sort of four-legged human. He said,

“If we can understand what it means to be a horse, react like a horse, and relate to other things like a horse, then we can have a more productive relationship with a horse.”

This is the basis for empathy, whether we are considering it in relation to animals or other people. As reported in his book Kinship with all Life,  Allen Boone got similar advice from an elder regarding a famous movie actor dog he was looking after for a year with whom he wanted to forge a deeper connection:

“There’s facts about dogs ... and there’s opinions about them. The dogs have the facts, and the humans have the opinions. If you want facts about a dog, always get them straight from the dog, if you want opinions, get them from the human.”

How To Ask Animals Who They Are

This turns out to be good advice, but how do we “ask” a dog or a horse who they are? It turns out that we do it outside of human language and the best place to start is to observe deeply.

As horse people, how often do we freely receive and give advice about horses such as what they need to eat, how to train them, what their character is like and so on? If we followed all received advice from friends and other horse people we would end up with quite a few mixed-up ideas.

I’ve certainly allowed myself to be confused by well-intentioned advice regarding diet, health and care, but eventually if we want honest and meaningful relationships with our horses we must reference reputable sources of knowledge ourselves and, equally importantly, learn to “listen” to horses. They are constantly trying to communicate with us, but how do you ask a horse about themselves?

Human language is not much good for this purpose, while spending time with them without expectations, agenda, or time constraints is how to listen to them. When interacting directly with horses we find that they “ask questions”. It’s relatively easy to see this in a dog as they ask for a game, a ride in the car, bones or a cuddle on the sofa, but it is less obvious with horses until you learn to read their very finely tuned expressions.

I first consciously experienced a horse questioning me when as a novice rider the young horse I was working with reached a position of trust. While trekking out alone we came to a fork in the track and I felt him hesitate for a split second. This was a definite question: “Which way do you want me to go?”

It was a beautiful moment and from then on I purposefully set up situations where my horse would ask questions. It is essential to allow the horse to pose questions if we wish to work with them within an environment of trust.

Emulating Horse Attributes

The horse has many attributes that we humans could do with ourselves. Take the way they communicate with each other, which is mostly nonverbally. Humans rely heavily on verbal language, conceptual symbols and mental constructs for communication.

Of course, our large brains and developed technologies are extremely useful but as a species we have pretty much forgotten how to communicate on somatic and energetic levels. Although, this isn’t strictly correct either since humans do still communicate somatically and energetically. We constantly communicate nonverbally but are generally unaware of doing so.

By spending time looking for the nonverbal signals when we are with horses we can learn a great deal about them, and ultimately, about ourselves. The horse expects to communicate with us nonverbally and tries to do so through body language, even if we don’t know how to listen. It’s natural for the horse, so he doesn’t understand why it’s not natural for us too.

Horses have amazing memories. Even though they live in the moment with little concern for past or future, that doesn’t mean they forget everything that happens to them. The opposite is the case.

If you’ve ever tried to retrain a horse who’s been badly treated, you will know how well they remember. And there is much anecdotal evidence of horses remembering their dam or siblings many years after being separated from them. They remember cruelty and injuries, both as body sensations and as fear when the same stimulus that once hurt them represents itself. The big difference between them and us though is that they don’t dwell all day long on the unpleasant thing that happened to them.

Horses don’t replay the story of their abuse, which as image-thinkers rather than word-thinkers they can’t do unless directly stimulated (but that doesn’t mean they can’t be permanently damaged). Most humans think in words, making personal story invention a natural ability, although thinking in visual images is natural for some, especially those on the autism spectrum. We can all utilize and develop the ability to think in images though.

I have noticed that when I deliberately form a picture in my head of what I would like my horses to do, they respond much more readily than if I had merely formed a sentence in my head or had spoken out loud. For this reason, I recommend mostly working in silence with horses, using imagery rather than words. This works beautifully as horses readily respond to us being more like them.

Being in the Present Moment

Horses read emotional states as if they belong to the present (which is the case, of course). I can’t emphasize enough how important this is to remember: if a horse picks up on somebody’s anxiety about an imaginary future scenario or a past event, they assume the tension arises from the present moment, that there is something wrong right now.

In terms of human physiology it is also true that our bodies don’t know the difference between a scary thing we are afraid might happen, and the thing itself. Our bodies react to dwelling on past or future pain as if it is happening in the moment.

Horses know us better emotionally than we know ourselves, and uncannily they so often know what we need at any given time. They show us how to reclaim parts of our humanity that have been lost through unnecessary thinking. They demonstrate that it is possible to rediscover our true selves.

Copyright ©2024. All Rights Reserved.

Article Source:

BOOK: Soul Connection with Horses

Soul Connection with Horses: Healing the Mind and Awakening the Spirit through Equine Assisted Practices
by Suzanne E. Court.

About the Author

Article Recap:

The article discusses how horses, with their unique emotional intelligence and present-moment awareness, can guide us back to our true essence, helping us differentiate between constructive and destructive thoughts. It highlights the lessons horses teach about living authentically, being present, and embracing our unconditioned true selves through genuine connection and empathy.